Today I sit down with Brittany St. Clair.  She is an Oregon native, dog mama, hunter and domestic abuse survivor.  We discuss her life growing up in Southwest Oregon, moving from a small town to the bright lights of Portland and surviving mental and physical abuse from ex-boyfriends.  I met Brittany through Instagram and saw how open she was about her past abuse and I immediately knew that I had to sit down with her and hear her story.  I really enjoyed the conversation.  I hope you all do too!  

Ian is a friend of mine that I met through Instagram.  I was out on a run one day and heard someone honking and yelling at me from their vehicle as I was waiting at a crosswalk.  I turned to see Ian waving at me from his truck saying "I follow you on Instagram!"  We've been buddies ever since!  Ian is husband to wife Tiffany and father to 3 year old Titan, who was born with Downs Syndrome.  It wasn't until we started recording that we realized that it had been a year since we'd seen each other face to face.  We discuss a wide array of things including what it's like to be a father of a child with Downs Syndrome while sitting in Ian's garage drinking Red Bull at 9:00 at night.  It was a real pleasure sitting down with Ian!  I hope you enjoy!

For the first episode of Against The Herd, I sit down with my friend and co-worker Dakota Curtis.  Dakota is a father of 1 1/2 kids (His fiancé is pregnant with their daughter Emma) and has a rowdy 3 year old daughter Lilly.  Today we sat down for a late evening pod session that had a few technical issues that will be resolved by the next episode! I had a blast sitting down with Dakota outside of the working environment and get to know him more on a personal level.  I hope you all enjoy the maiden voyage!

Happy Monday!  For this episode, I just wanted to share a couple stories from my life with you.  I am still dialing in the format for the pod but I want to keep it as authentic as possible.  I turn back the clock to a family story from my childhood that still gets referenced to this day, as well as a jaunt down memory lane to my time as a Correctional Officer.  Have a great rest of the week everyone!